...and the Pictures!

Here are some pictures of Ethan at 8.5 months! His first Christmas, and it was in Alaska!!

(Great) Grandma and Grandpa Stastny got Ethan the cutest outfit with pengins! Thanks G&G!

Ethan actually got into the whole opening presents ordeal, he really likes paper

Man he got spoiled, G&G Rindlisbacher got him an amazing Fisher Price train set. Don't ask us how we got it back to Rexburg :) He loves it!

He also got a warm outfit to wear outside; it worked out really well in Alaska and now it's gotten really cold in Idaho so it's perfect. Eric's not too much a fan of the bear ears, but it's way soft and I think it's cute!

These are the only pictures I have from my camera, I used my dad's a lot and he's sending me a CD so I'll post more when I get them.

Winter Update

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! It's sad I have to put all of this onto one post, I know, again I'm sorry! And another disappointment, I don't have all the pictures from Christmas and Alaska yet because most of them are on my dad’s camera. So we’ll have to do a Christmas in February post or something to make up for it. But Alaska was so much fun! It was great being able to see everyone again, and it was so nice to have a break from school. Thanks Mom and Dad (both sets J) for making it possible!

Ethan was pretty shy at first and had a hard time with the transition from being with only his parents to having many people around who wanted to hold him, but after a couple days of freaking out he calmed down and let others take him. Jayme, my little sister, was so funny with him! She constantly wanted to hold him which was fine by me, and made so many funny noises and faces that I think he forgot to cry. Opa was one of his favorites as well because he would always walk around with him and he let Ethan play in the water.

Christmas was fun, we spent Christmas Eve at my house doing the traditional fondue (love it!) and nativity reenactment. My grandma Audrey surprised us and came up, it was fun to see her again. Christmas morning we spent at the Rindlisbachers, we opened presents and ate amazing buttermilk waffles. That evening we went down to our Grandma and Grandpa Carters house for dinner with everyone. It was so much fun and we ate so much those two days!

The flight to Alaska went really well, but the flight back was interesting. We left at 1 am and Ethan was so tired he wouldn’t go to sleep. We were worried because while we were waiting to take off we just kept him entertained, but then they turned the cabin lights off and everyone wanted to sleep, so we tried to put a blanket over him to get him asleep but he wouldn’t hear of it. Eric held him for a screaming minute and tried to get him to fall asleep, but I knew he wasn’t going to go. I said a quick prayer, and as soon as I said amen he fell silent and slept for a good chunk of the first leg. I’m so grateful for a father in heaven who watches out for his children and cares about even their insignificant requests! I hope everyone had a good Christmas and happy 2008!

Well, my connection is being so slow it won’t let me add pictures, hopefully this text will get added and I’ll put pictures on when it’s working better!

December Update

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, things have been crazy with school these last few weeks. We only have 3 days left, then we get to go home to Alaska on Saturday!! I'm so excited, not really about the plane ride up, but about seeing family and friends again, it feels like forever since I've been home. Hopefully I'll get to post things more often while we're there, pictures of Ehtan meeting his aunts and uncles, and being with his grandparents!

Not that we haven’t loved Ethan all along, but I think babies just get more fun and cuter as they get older. Ethan is almost 8 months now and he just does things sometimes that crack me up. If you look at him and shake your head no, he’ll shake his head no back. He loves to laugh and be sitting up with us when we’re at the table, and wants to eat everything we’re eating. When he sees a spoon or fork he opens his mouth like he wants some too. It’s really fun to see!

He’s been eating baby food lately, and there are some flavors he loves, some he likes, and definitely some he doesn’t like at all, green beans and peas being prime examples of what he doesn't like. But I still got him to smile for the picture :)

He gums crackers and nilla wafers to death since he can’t chew yet.

It’s been getting cold out so I put his hat on pretty much wherever we go. Also he loves to suck on anything, especially his blankets, and he thinks he’s hilarious when he does it.

Ethan’s new favorite toy is my hair, and I didn’t think about that before I put him up on my shoulders!

Seven Month Pictures

I decided it was time to get some good pictures of Ethan. Mine are fun but not even close to professional. My friend Lynn (used to be Lynn Christian, and used to baby-sit me :) lives in Rexburg and has a photography studio in her basement, so I asked her to take some pictures of him and maybe a few family ones. I scheduled it at a time that is normally between his naptimes, but unfortunately he woke up earlier than normal that morning so he was already tired by the time we got there. After a few frustrating tries for family shots with him rubbing his eyes the whole time, we decided to come back later and try again.
When I went back he was in a better mood, but was content to just look at the camera and be amused by the crazy things Lynn and I were doing to try to make him smile, but he didn't crack. So here are some pretty straight-faced but still cute pictures of Ethan at 7 months.

He had his hands in his mouth almost constantly when we went back! It was hard to get a good picture.

His attempt at sitting up :) We're still working on that one.

Big Thanksgiving for our Little Family

We decided this year we would have Thanksgiving with just our family. The part I was most nervous about was cooking the turkey because I've never done it before, but Eric took the initiative on that one and I was really glad he did because it turned out really well! On the recipe it said to baste it frequently during the first hour, and I swear he got up every 10 minutes to do it. I was worried it wasn't going to cook in time because the oven was open so much! But it ended up being amazing and moist and very good. And we have lots of leftovers.
Last night we made turkey soup from some of the remnants and that turned out really good as well.

The perfect turkey! Basted quite often :)

Ethan wanted to help cook.

He got kinda in the way after a few minutes, and he loves the feel and sound of plastic bags so I put him on the floor with a full bag of marshmallows. A few minutes later I heard him whining and went to see what happened and somehow he had gotten the bag open and spilled marshmallows all over the floor. I actually put that one in his hand for affect, but he did like sucking on it while I took the picture!

Eric wanted to make Uncle Mikes layered Jello, but didn't start it till Thanksgiving morning. He didn't have enough time to let each layer set completely, and added the next layer as soon as the previous one started looking a little firm. After it was all done, he wanted to be able to see all the layers so he tried to turn it upside down onto a plate. This is what happened :)

Before, just out of the fridge.About to flip...

And done. It wasn't hard enough to stand up on it's own.

You could actually see the layers once it was in a dish, and it did taste really good!

A Few Pictures...

Ethan's new outfit thanks to Grandma Carter! Thanks mom he looks so cute in his new clothes! He's also getting more practice sitting up in the Bumbo. He's really good at holding himself up front and back, but side to side he still falls over a lot. We're working on it though.

He also likes sticking his hands in his mouth, and anyone else's mouth.







Eric wanted to see how Ethan would react with headphones on. I think he really liked them!
















Sitting up with a little help, but he loves looking at pictures. Especially of himself :)

Sleeping- Not Wrapped!!!

So we finally got Ethan weaned of having to be wrapped as he goes down for naps or bedtime! He's been waking himself up at nights for the past few weeks because he'll break out and isn't used to having his arms free, so they go right to his face and wake him up. Not fun. But now it seems like he's over it! We just lay him down and put a blanket on him, which he grabs and pulls next to his face, and when we leave the room he'll either talk or cry for a few minutes, then goes to sleep. It's a

pretty nice change. Next Eric wants to wean him of the pacifier, but I don't think that'll happen for a while yet.

Also, the occupational therapist brought us a chair to put Ethan in once in a while to work on his sitting up skills. It's super sturdy and he likes being up in the action, so he has fun with it. But she told us not to use it to much or else it will act like a crutch and he won't learn to sit up on his own. Eric was having fun with Ethan in it and put him in front of the mirror, which he loves looking into.